Luang Prabang to Huay Xai, Laos

Luang Prabang was relaxing and pleasantly touristy. We enjoyed some great food and took in the relaxing pace of things. We didn't really do too much there, we had a nice hotel on the Mekong and walked around the city enjoying the hundreds of Monks, temples and French colonial architecture.

On a couple of mornings we did get up early to watch the procession of monks collecting alms, which was quite a beautiful sight. Each morning starting at 6am the locals would get out their straw mats with bowls of sticky rice. They would kneel as the monks formed long processions down the streets, bowls in hand, receiving hand outs from the generous citizens of Luang Prabang. A really beautiful time of the day.


We did spend an afternoon visiting some beautiful multi-tiered waterfalls, 34km's from town. The rainy season had really swamped the place though. The picnic area would have been great, with some scuba gear. Although it might have been a good idea to take down the sign which indicated the area for swimming. This swimming area looked like a giant angry bubbling witches brew ready dissolve all those who enter, really not safe. We did talk to a guy later who thought he would give it a go anyway, 'it must be safe, after all there is even a sign saying 'swimming area.''(!) He got sucked under in a bad undertow and pinned at the bottom for what he reckons was about 20 seconds before being spat out downstream just before the next serious drop of the multi tiered waterfall. He then decided that it was probably a bad idea to swim. People are funny sometimes. If you put up a sign at the top of the waterfall saying 'Jump off waterfall here,' I wonder how many people would just plunge to their death, simply because the sign (an indication of some sort of all knowing authority) told them too.

So, other than a lovely bicycle ride through some local villages on the other side of the Mekong we didn't do to much in Luang Prabang, just laid low plodding around the city, at night we would wander around what is surely the worlds most peaceful and calm night market, absolutely lovely. After a few days of this we bought a ticket to travel up the Mekong river towards Huay Xai near the the Thai border, but we would first have to spend a night in Pak Beng, a rough little transition town that is halfway between Luang Prabang and Huay Xai.

The river trip was amazing, mostly for what we didn't see; signs of human development, there was so little of it. No bridges no real towns, just a few small grass hut villages. Along the river were hills of jungle that reached out from the river banks and stretched as far as we could see, sometimes over several layers of hills and mountains. The river itself ran strong and brown with silt, some areas had extremely strong currents with rapids and whirlpools, a reminder of the force at which this beast, the Mighty Mekong moved through the landscape.

After two days on the river and one night in Pak Beng we arrived in Huay Xai, a town of little interest, except for one small office which we went to visit. It was the office for the Bokeo National Reserve Forest and The Gibbon Experience. We had heard of the Gibbon Experience when traveling in Nepal, we were told it was a super little adventure but had decided not do it for financial reasons. I thought we could just see if there was any last minute spots and if so maybe we could get a deal. Anyhow, shortly after we were scheduled to leave the next morning for the Gibbon Experience, a decision that resulted in us having one of best times we have had yet.

Hanoi to Laos

Our train left Hanoi at 11pm and what ensued was one of those journey's where everything just came together perfectly well, despite having made no plans for our multi-leg journey. Our first bit of luck was on the overnight train, which we could only book seats for, all the sleepers were taken. Within 10 minutes of the train leaving we were asked if we would like to have our own private A/C sleeper room, which had become available. Of course there was a price, this was an enterprising offer from the girls working on the train, but the price was perfectly reasonable (after some proper asian style haggling, with a smile). We had a really nice sleep in the locked safety and comfort of our own private room.

We arrived in Vinh, down the Vietnamese coast at 5am just before sunrise, we had to then make our arrangements here to get a bus into Laos. The bus routes seemed complex for the area we wanted to go and looked like they would involve many transfers and plenty of time sitting around, but we really wanted to break free from the usual routes and take more remote roads into Laos bringing us to the city of Phonsavan. But before we could get there we had to sort out what the guide book said would be several different busses to get there. That morning in Vinh brought us a fantastic meeting of coincidence with a guy from Laos who was driving a bus all the way to Phonsovan, he does this 3 times a week at 6am and we were there at the right time and just happened to bump into this guy, a mile from the bus station. This saved us an incredible amount of messing around, and certainly time too.

The journey to Phonsovan was beautiful, the mountains grew bigger and bigger as we approached the border. The border was in a high mountain pass that didn't look like it saw many tourists at all. The border crossing took us 2 hours to get through, with their unimaginably slow pace of sorting us out and doing the paper work. Once we started moving again the bus began to descend through some very steep mountain switch-backs, no worries though we had a great bus driver. We did unfortunately pass another bus that wasn't so lucky. A large passenger coach had come skidding off the road on one of the steep turns, toppled over on its side and slid part way down an embankment where it rested awkwardly. The scene had obviously just unfolded as stunned passengers milled about on the road, one woman was screaming and crying near to the bus. I assumed we would stop to help but after a few words between our bus driver and someone on the road we moved on, leaving these people on an isolated mountain road. Strange.

Phonsovan was uneventful, we decided to leave the following morning for Luang Prabeng. We were already noticing a big difference between Laos and Vietnam, the people were very genuine, friendly and easy going in Laos.

The following morning went smoothly, we boarded our bus and started our 7 hour trip for Luang Prabang. Everything was fine until we stopped by the roadside to pick someone up. This guy had a small motorcycle with him which was loaded onto the roof. As they loaded the motorcycle on the roof our new passenger stood outside our window hanging on to the side of the bus helping load the motorcycle on. It was at this point that Steff noticed something odd about our new passenger, he had a gun, a very large gun, hidden under his coat. This was an attempt to conceal a weapon that was clearly too large for the coat trying to hide it, a trench-coat might have been more appropriate, the end of this assault rifle was sticking clearly, uncomfortably, out the bottom of his coat. He got on the bus and sat at the front, the butt of his gun sticking out of the shoulder of his coat so that it was clearly visible down the aisle. Right, this is where I started to get a bit worried, I was certain i had read something somewhere that might help understand this situation. I grabbed the guide book, searched the index, buses...safety, here we go, page 251 'Dangers & Annoyances', I started to read; oh, this wasn't good. We were on route 7, one of two known routes in Laos where buses have been taken by rebels and passengers shot to death. Route 7 is very remote, there is nothing along this road, no traffic either... How does he look, this guy? He was fidgeting, I think his hands were sweating, I was certain that the situation had the potential for a rapid decent into blood and chaos, but maybe i was being irrational. Don't rebels need to just take the bus too? Perhaps he was visiting his grandma, who knows. What about the motorcycle, was this a getaway vehicle for after he has disposed of us all. My overactive imagination was full steam ahead, Steff decided to have a nap and slept peacefully beside me, had she forgotten about this guy?

We did arrive in Luang Prabang, alive. The guy with a gun even helped me get my bag off, nice rebel insurgent. Oh, I should mention one funny thing that did happen on the bus. At one point, a few hours into the bus ride I really had to go to the loo, I just couldn't hold it, so i decided to ask the bus driver to pull over for a quick stop. I walked to the front of the bus and what do i do, i walk right into the end of this guys gun. My thigh made hard contact with the butt of the gun under this guys coat. "Sorry," I said, trying to pretend I just knocked his shoulder or something. What a stupid thing to do, it's almost like because I was so concerned about this gun and this guy that I walked straight into it (maybe a case of "whatever you do, just don't mention the war." Faulty Towers fans will know what I mean) Anyhow, I did manage to get off and pee with out being shot . Bizarre situation really. We met a German guy later that night in Luang Prabeng who we told our experience too, he mentioned that this guy might have been an undercover army officer on the bus incase of an attempted rebel takeover, this made us feel better, I think.

The drive overall was very beautiful, it is amazing how undeveloped Laos is. Lots of mountains and hills all rolling with thick lush green jungle. The country is like a calm wilderness haven in the midst of an ambitious Asian storm of emerging capitalism and overpopulation. Overall, a pleasant change of pace from China, Thailand and Vietnam.

Hanoi, Vietnam's bustling capital... and Halong Bay

We arrived into Hanoi's old quarter early in the morning (6a.m.) in the midst of a busy street market. Our guest house was tucked down a narrow alley that was full of vegetable and meat vendors, the later butchering and selling their meat right on the streets. Water was used to wash away remains of meat and blood onto the pavement which was quite a sight first thing in the morning after a restless, overnight, 12hour bus ride to the capital.

We spent a day wandering around the bustling city filled with motorbikes and then booked a three day boat trip through Halong Bay, an absolutely beautiful part of Vietnam. The Halong Bay area is an area in the North East of Vietnam where almost 2000 islands rise from the tropical waters into fascinating shapes of Karst formed limestone.

Our three day trip was really lovely and relaxing. We had a super group of people on our trip, mostly Brits (and a notable Aussie guy), which we have decided are a great bunch to hang out with and have a good time (and maybe cause a bit of innocent trouble). The trip began with a mini bus ride out to the docks of Halong Bay city, a busy dock with hundreds of tourist boats and where you begin to feel like you are on a sort of tourist assembly line. Right after we boarded lunch began while our big wooden boat puttered out of the harbour. We made our way to a small island with some giant Karst formed caves which were really spectacular, despite the tacky disco lighting that the Vietnamese have decided would improve things. You really felt the tourist assembly line in full effect here, along with the absolutely stupid comments from our tour guide of how certain parts of the cave looked like Dragons, Romeo and Juliet and giant breasts to feed a thousand men! All of these things were a stretch, even with the best of imaginations. So, we steered away from the group and ended up having a few moments of peace to enjoy the splendor of the caves, with out the moronic commentary. The caves were truly a magnificent display of huge and ancient stalagmites and stalactites and possibly the biggest caves we have ever been in. After the caves, we boarded our boat and sailed through some gorgeous watery scenery dotted with jungle covered islands . This is a really spectacular area of our planet, stunning Karst formations were in every direction. It is really no wonder that this region has also been protected and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We spent a night on Cat Ba Island where we were introduced to 'Bia Hoi' with our group. Hoi beer is a locally made fresh beer, without any preservatives, that costs less that 15 cents a glass, ironically much cheaper than water. Cheap beer and a bunch of Brits with us tagging along, it could have ended up getting really crazy, but we were all reasonably responsible, but in retrospect this was all just a mild warm up for the next night we would spend on the boat, but we will come to that in a bit.

The following morning we did a short hike on the island up to a viewing tower that would have surely sent UK health and safety workers into cardiac arrest. Feeling like living on the edge we climbed the old rusted tower to get a better view of the bizarrely shaped hills on the island. On top of the tower the platform was made of old wooden planks that just lie loose on the rusted structure. The tower was about three stories high, but also atop a shear sided hill, making it feel dangerously higher. After returning to the bottom of the tower we saw a hand painted sign warning that only 5 people at a time should be on the tower, which was clearly originally designed to hold many more than this. Upon seeing the sign the next logical question I thought of was; 'how did they figure out that this rusted beast couldn't actually handle more than 5 people?' Hmmm...

We slid our way back down the insanely slippery mud and sharp rock strewn trail, back to the road where we boarded our bus. It turned out that flip-flops, the footwear of choice, didn't make for greatest footwear on this trail that must have been sponsored by the island hospital's finance department. We all did manage to get away unscathed, albeit totally covered in red mud.

We then headed for the boat for an afternoon sail to a pretty cove where we all did a bit of Kayaking. There were interesting floating villages nearby which we paddled through while navigating around the small islands. It felt great to have the freedom to float around on our own and to enjoy the sunset with the tall, narrow islands as silhouettes. After this we boarded our boat again, there was already a plan in the works to negotiate a better price for the beer on board, our Aussie comrade had decided we should begin negotiations by offering to pre-buy 30 beers, uh oh, things were going to get interesting tonight. Following successful negations the nights liquid-fueled entertainment began. Lots of fun, jumping off the roof of the boat for a late-night swim, upsetting the crew, and threats that the local Vietnamese boat police would be called in to sort us out. I would say the evening went over successfully and we went to bed relatively early (2:30am) and left the Aussie and Scotsman to take things to the next level, or two.

The next day we puttered around the karst islands some more and swam in some fiercely strong currents. I was certain the captain was trying to drown us after the previous nights' performance. We eventually made our way back to Halong Bay City where we were greeted with some drama by a machette swinging Vietnamese man clearly trying to kill another man. The local bystanders were totally unfazed by this, so perhaps that man has a reputation for machete attacks, who knows? At times the conflict was looking like scenes from a Jackie Chan kung-fu film, especially when the defendant found a large stick which he used to effectively block swings of the machete. Following this bit of entertainment we headed in for lunch at a local restaurant and then made our way back to Hanoi.

Upon our return to Hanoi, we were invited to stay with a high school friend of Steff's, Kelly (Martin) Caleb and her family. Her and her husband are teaching in Hanoi at the UN school, raising their son and traveling through Asia at every opportunity. It was great for Steff to reconnect with Kelly and for us to spend time in a family home, a pleasant change from guesthouses and hotels.

New Photos have been posted in the Gallery.

Cheers everyone and we'd love to hear from those of you who are reading the blog, we're craving some update emails from friends and family!! :-)

Hoi An: A 'Tailor Made' City

On our continued slow meander up the Vietnamese coast we arrived in old city of Hoi An, a living museum. The old part of the city, which is also a UNESCO world heritage site, is very charming and atmospheric. It hugs the riverside and is full of beautiful buildings that seem to be a mixture of French colonial and Chinese style architecture, very unique. Many of the buildings are painted an inviting shade of yellow which looks lovely with the green tropical plants and tables and chairs of the restaurants and cafes that spill out onto the sidewalks and patios. Many of the buildings were built in the early part of the 19th century and have the look of aged beauty. The city is full of great places to eat as well as plenty of its most famous type of business', the cloth shops and tailors.

Hoi An has become famous on the South East Asian travelers scene for being the place to have tailor made clothing done. With some 400 plus shops tailoring clothing it actually becomes difficult to know which one to use. We did a little research on the web to find out what people had to say about their favorites, it was interesting what sort of information we came across. Some people had had some great experiences here, some had there dreams of bespoke clothing turn to nightmares. Armed with our new information the fun began. We selected some ideas from the latest in designer fashions, found in magazines and catalogues, picked out our fabrics and set wheels (or rather sewing machines) in motion.

Once you give them your idea and pick your fabric the process begins with the measurements. They take so many measurements it almost seems absurd, but you remain still and do as your told while the tape measure swirls up, down, around, under and over every part of your body (wondering 'why do they need to measure that?'). Also, the place we went to, Yaly Couture, took 3 photographs of us; front side and back. The photographs were taken in a blue booth with a grid pattern on the walls and a measuring stick at the back, it all seemed rather high tech. Apparently the tailor is given the photographs so they can quickly look at your shape and size and reference it against the grid while they bring your fabric dreams to life.

We found that it took 3-4 fittings, on average for each of our main pieces of clothing to get them perfect, the shop was great, nothing was too small of a request and they would even point out corrections that should be made that we didn't notice. In the end we were very happy with the was things went, although our pockets certainly felt lighter.

We managed to spend about a week in Hoi An, but it wasn't all about the clothes, we did a few other fun things. We spent a day on a motorbike riding north on the coast to a place called Marble Mountain, an area of churches and temples that have been integrated with natural caves and surprisingly interesting. We also went to China Beach, a significant area for Rest & Relaxation for U.S. troops during the Vietnam war and a great spot for surfing. Sadly, the waves weren't big enough to surf when we were there but we sure had a nice time swimming in the warm waters.

After Hoi An we made our way up to the popular Vietnamese vacation area of Na Trang. Our time would be short here, just one night and a day of floating, swimming and eating courtesy of a boat trip. Our sunny warm day on the boat puttered around the nearby islands in the gorgeous blue-green waters around Na Trang.

Following Na Trang we spent a couple of nights in the not-so-exciting city of Hue. You know that when a giant flag pole is listed amongst the 'sites of the city' that it's probably not going to be that great. It was very humid there, making things uncomfortable for going around to the, uhhh, sites. While in Hue it wasn't entirely boring however, as we did manage to time a visit to a Buddhist monastery while the monks were chanting and praying during their morning prayers, which was a really special experience.

Leaving Hue, we travelled by overnight bus to Hanoi, capital of Vietnam. Following several really crap bus rides here in Vietnam, we splurged on tickets for a fancy new sleeper bus, a very smart decision. There was still a couple of irritating issues surrounding the bus, but the ride itself was fine. We arrived in Hanoi's Old Quarter at 6:30AM, the street markets already bustling away. Things looked like they would be pretty interesting here.

Some new photos of Hoi An have been posted in our Gallery.

Mui Ne Beach, Vietnam

Mui Ne Beach has been a lovely beach paradise, located on a massive sandy bay. It is a quiet resort town at this time of year, as it is the off season for this kitesurfing and windsurfing mecca. We are staying at a beautiful resort where the rooms have all the modern amenities, beautifully decorated and the most attentive staff waiting to serve us at every moment. We feel like we are on our honeymoon and not that we are backpacking around the world!!! But due to this actually being the quietest time for traveling in Vietnam, we benefit with being able to afford posh resorts!! Fab! Also, another benefit to being the quiet season here, is that traditional Vietnamese life can be viewed on the beach. One morning we observed 100s of people pulling into the beach massive fishing nets that had been set by boat the night before. They were slowly, step by step bringing in the nets over hours in the morning heat. Once the nets were in, we could see their massive catch of fish and watch the people sort through and divide the fish among the individual families. It was very inspiring to see so many individuals come together to help each other for the greater good of the whole.

Justin has been learning to kitesurf over the last 4 days and he has now got it! He has that sparkle in his eye of excitement and is now officially addicted to this new sport in his life. It's good we have more time here for him to go play in the wind and the waves.

It has been wonderful to stay here as long as we have, but it is now time to press on and return to our backpacking lifestyle.

A few new pictures have been posted in our Vietnam Gallery.

Love to you all,

steff and Justin xoxo